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Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Originally Posted by bigchelis

I will order the reflector and put this theory to rest

But to be fair an XP-E R4 copper drop-in with 1.4A driver has to be made for testing cause my other EZ900/100 are driven that hard and harder. I get over 12K lux with EZ100 at 301 OTF at 1.3A via NB Drop-in

BigC

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BigC,..I'm sure there are many people wondering how your build went on this.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Well, I finally got home and have gotten a chance to play with the reflector from Manafont. I am very impressed with the price and quality of the reflector and it does throw better than the one that comes with the XP-E from Dereelight.
I want to play some more before I make my final opinion.
Now I want to get a drop in for using 2 14500 batteries and try the reflector from Manafont. Should be really bright!

I am the Light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. - Jesus

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Originally Posted by orbital

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BigC,..I'm sure there are many people wondering how your build went on this.

>...........

Especially me since I'm the guy who's going to build it

So, I stopped by bigC's house today and he gave me the Manafont reflector to play with and to eventually build into a drop-in for him. The first thing I did was to put it into my good old C2 and tested it! Unfortunately, I don't have any drop-ins with an XP-E so I used the next best thing: the three mode ThruNite XP-G drop-in.

I set the camera up about five feet from the wall, focused the lens manually, set the exposure to auto and the exposure compensation to -2. I'm after the shape of the hotspot and not doing a brightness comparison. I then took a picture of the XP-G pill set to high from each of the three reflectors and threw in an Ahorton aspheric with an EZ-1000 die XR-E for an apples to oranges comparison. The EZ-1000 die XR-E cannot be directly compared to the larger die XP-G because the XP-G die is 40% larger and the resulting hotspot will be correspondingly 40% larger. Well, these reflectors held their own pretty well, I would say. They are: Manafont SMO; Solarforce SMO (from an XM-L drop-in), and ThruNite LOP. I also have a Dereelight XP-G reflector, but, it throws a hotspot approximately the same size as the ThruNite reflector so it would have been a wash with that one. On to the pictures:

On all three reflectored shots I tightened down the pill in the reflector all the way for the picture. On the Manafont reflector I tried unscrewing the reflector a quarter turn at a time to see if I could improve the focus, but, nothing worked so I left it at that. Yes, the donut hole really is that apparent! The real shocker, for me, was the Solarforce reflector. No donut hole and about the same size hotspot as the Manafont. The aspheric, you'll recall, is using an LED that has a smaller die so, essentially, it's not a fair fight, but, if you scale up the hotspot by approximately 40% you'll see that it has a slightly larger hotspot than the Manafont or Solarforce reflectors. All three reflectored pictures were taken with the same flashlight host, same batteries, same ThruNite pill, and from the same approximate distance, about six feet from the wall.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Thank you for the pictures PCC. Wow, you went all out on the explanation too. For reference these Aspheric XR-E R2 EZ1000 drop-ins make 27K lux and then some. Thats alot of throw.

I ordered a handfull of XP-E R4 emitters from cutterelectronics to be guaranteed the highest grade real R4 bins. And thats whats been putting this project on hold. I want to see if those XP-E R4's can generate some real competition to a good old XR-E R2. I have a perfect sample XR-E R2 EZ1000 to test against it already, just waiting on parts.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

I think the dx single mode xre I have is a 900 btw.
I know the pill behind my Ahorton is

This is a great thread- thanks!

For a ton of throw from a P60 drop-in. You have to go smaller which the XR-E R2 EZ900 certainly does over the XR-E R2 EZ100. In fact at as you might have seen my old set-up had ez900 and generated 32.5K lux.

The reason I switched back to the EZ1000 size is simple. The EZ1000 can take the extra heat and actually generate more lumens, but yes overall lux is less. But in person the EZ1000 just looks soo much brighter and from 27.5K vs. 32.5K lux my eyes simply cant tell which throws more. What is apparent is that the EZ1000 at 27.5K lux is alot brighter and just looks more impressive.

for the record the EZ1000 with P60 drop-in by Nailbender at 1.3A and SMO reflector nets 13~13.5K lux at 1m.

The record holder for P60 type drop-ins (well not really a drop-in, but you send in youre 6P type hosts) is the Saablaster DEFT EDC XP-C which does 40K lux at 1m.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Originally Posted by PCC

.... Yes, the donut hole really is that apparent!

I've been mucking about with that manafont reflector with an xp-g and I swear the donut hole is almost undetectable. Strange. It's got a lot tighter hotspot than the Regina reflector that is currently in front of it too.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Originally Posted by bigchelis

For a ton of throw from a P60 drop-in. You have to go smaller which the XR-E R2 EZ900 certainly does over the XR-E R2 EZ100. In fact at as you might have seen my old set-up had ez900 and generated 32.5K lux.

The reason I switched back to the EZ1000 size is simple. The EZ1000 can take the extra heat and actually generate more lumens, but yes overall lux is less. But in person the EZ1000 just looks soo much brighter and from 27.5K vs. 32.5K lux my eyes simply cant tell which throws more. What is apparent is that the EZ1000 at 27.5K lux is alot brighter and just looks more impressive.

for the record the EZ1000 with P60 drop-in by Nailbender at 1.3A and SMO reflector nets 13~13.5K lux at 1m.

The record holder for P60 type drop-ins (well not really a drop-in, but you send in youre 6P type hosts) is the Saablaster DEFT EDC XP-C which does 40K lux at 1m.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

I put one of those XP-C Q4 behind one of the 28mm DX aspherics, after seeing one of saabluster's post about it's surface brightness. I put it with a 3x7135 driving it around 1A, and it makes a considerable brighter and smaller hotspot than my EZ900 XR-E R2. It's a dandy little emitter. I wish that I could get them on 14mm or 16mm PCBs though, since these reflectors won't screw down well on top of a 10mm board. Maybe now is a good time to learn how to reflow an emitter onto a board.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Thanks Orbital for a great mod. This is just what I was looking for. I am using the Manafont reflector along with a Dereelight XP-E R3 3SM emitter on my C2 Centurion with Z-48 tailcap. I use AW and Battery Station RCR 123's to power it. The additional throw is just amazing. I did have a couple of questions though. For some reason, every once in a while, when I press the tailcap to turn the light on it won't fire, as though the batteries are dead. But when I give it a a little bump against my hand it comes on. This only happens occasionally. Do you or anyone else have any idea what the problem could be? I am only using the short inside spring in the drop in as instructed when using with a Surefire. Also, How much runtime on high can I expect with the 750 mah batteries I am using? Thanks for any info you can provide.

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Originally Posted by vincent3664

Thanks Orbital for a great mod. This is just what I was looking for. I am using the Manafont reflector along with a Dereelight XP-E R3 3SM emitter on my C2 Centurion with Z-48 tailcap. I use AW and Battery Station RCR 123's to power it. The additional throw is just amazing. I did have a couple of questions though. For some reason, every once in a while, when I press the tailcap to turn the light on it won't fire, as though the batteries are dead. But when I give it a a little bump against my hand it comes on. This only happens occasionally. Do you or anyone else have any idea what the problem could be? I am only using the short inside spring in the drop in as instructed when using with a Surefire. Also, How much runtime on high can I expect with the 750 mah batteries I am using? Thanks for any info you can provide.

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1:Is there any play between your batteries and light, that may be an issue.
2:Also, make sure there is an isolator* between your pill & reflector so your solder points don't touch the reflector.
3: Double check the switch

Try and eliminate one possibility at a time till you find it.

Runtime will vary, maybe figure an hour of using all levels evenly..

*the isolator {the thin plastic circle} between your pill & reflector
is where you want to place very thin non-conductive spacers 'isolators' to fine tune your beam. The original isolator may be enough for spacer.
....this sound involved, but it's straightforward idea.

Be patient and keep trying, till you get the best beam pattern.
It's worth it!

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Originally Posted by orbital

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Thanks for all the info orbital. I checked for play in the batteries and they seem quite snug. At first I didn't see the isolator because it's clear. Now I see what you're talking about. Are you saying I should try to put in an additional isolator or is the original one removable? Where would I get an assortment of isolators to experiment with? I have no idea how to double check the switch. I don't have a multimeter. Wait a minute, I think I'll try the original tactical switch that came with the light to eliminate this possibility. Thanks again for taking the time to respond to my questions. Awesome mod!

1:Is there any play between your batteries and light, that may be an issue.
2:Also, make sure there is an isolator* between your pill & reflector so your solder points don't touch the reflector.
3: Double check the switch

Try and eliminate one possibility at a time till you find it.

Runtime will vary, maybe figure an hour of using all levels evenly..

*the isolator {the thin plastic circle} between your pill & reflector
is where you want to place very thin non-conductive spacers 'isolators' to fine tune your beam. The original isolator may be enough for spacer.
....this sound involved, but it's straightforward idea.

Be patient and keep trying, till you get the best beam pattern.
It's worth it!

I installed it on my Nailbender XPE R3 1.5A module in my Surefire D2.
It's too early for outdoor beam shots, but I'll do a few indoor shots and post outdoor later tonight.....

So far it seems pretty good, at least indoors, and while I realize it isn't as throwy as the smooth, but should get rid of the donut hole while still offering very good throw.
We'll see in a couple of hours.....

Re: ** Finally a true P60 thrower

Good news.

I finally have the 1.4A single mode driver, XP-E R4 from cutterelectonics on 10mm board, and the manafront XM-L SMO reflector. This Saturday is the CPF BBQ in San Jose, CA and I will finish assembly of this drop-in by then.

Then get some pictures and video of it against a DEFT EDC, LumaPower D-mini w/35mm SMO at 23.5K lux via XR-E R2 EZ1000, and some other custom Ahorton 27.5mm Aspheric builds. Maybe throw in a normal P60 XR-E R2 SMO reflector for comparison.

I installed it on my Nailbender XPE R3 1.5A module in my Surefire D2.
It's too early for outdoor beam shots, but I'll do a few indoor shots and post outdoor later tonight.....

So far it seems pretty good, at least indoors, and while I realize it isn't as throwy as the smooth, but should get rid of the donut hole while still offering very good throw.
We'll see in a couple of hours.....

+

So that's a parabolic OP?

Originally Posted by bigchelis

Good news.

I finally have the 1.4A single mode driver, XP-E R4 from cutterelectonics on 10mm board, and the manafront XM-L SMO reflector. This Saturday is the CPF BBQ in San Jose, CA and I will finish assembly of this drop-in by then.

Then get some pictures and video of it against a DEFT EDC, LumaPower D-mini w/35mm SMO at 23.5K lux via XR-E R2 EZ1000, and some other custom Ahorton 27.5mm Aspheric builds. Maybe throw in a normal P60 XR-E R2 SMO reflector for comparison.

bigC

+

Sounds good!Make sure that XP-E is perfectly centered in the pill ==::==

Seriously though , I hope your not going for a Guinness Book of World Records for P60 Lux,..
you'll be disappointed then.

What you'll have, is one great drop-in that's definitely leaning toward throw,
having flawless spill.

You don't want to go into something with overly high expectations, then be let down...

***Remember, you may need to fine tune the beam via emitter distance
with one or two of your thinnest isolators {spacers}